.

Missouri State Law/Statutes
Chapter 214
Cemeteries

 

Section 214.132
August 28, 1998

Visiting abandoned family or private burying ground surrounded by private
property, right of access, when, enforcement by sheriff-- court's power to
disinter.

214.132. 1. Any person who wishes to visit an abandoned family cemetery or
private burying ground which is completely surrounded by privately owned
land, for which no public ingress or egress is available, shall have the
right to reasonable ingress or egress for the purpose of visiting such
cemetery. This right of access to such cemeteries extends only to visitation
during reasonable hours and only for purposes usually associated with
cemetery visits.

2. The sheriff or chief law enforcement officer of the county in which the
abandoned family cemetery or private burying ground is located shall enforce
the provisions of subsection 1 of this section.

3. Nothing in section 214.131 and this section shall be construed to limit
or modify the power or authority of a court in any action of law or equity
to order the disinterment and removal of the remains from a cemetery and
interment in a suitable location.

(L. 1987 H.B. 60 §§ 2, 3, A.L. 1997 S.B. 58)

 


 

Section 214.131
August 28, 1998

Tombstones, fences, destroying or mutilating in abandoned family or private
cemetery, penalty--abandoned or private burying ground, defined.

214.131. Every person who shall knowingly destroy, mutilate, disfigure,
deface, injure or remove any tomb, monument or gravestone, or other
structure placed in any abandoned family cemetery or private burying ground,
or any fence, railing, or other work for the protection or ornamentation of
any such cemetery or place of burial of any human being, or tomb, monument
or gravestone, memento, or memorial, or other structure aforesaid, or of any
lot within such cemetery is guilty of a class A misdemeanor. For the
purposes of this section and subsection 1 of section 214.132, an "abandoned
family cemetery" or "private burying ground" shall include those cemeteries
or burying grounds which have not been deeded to the public as provided in
chapter 214, and in which no body has been interred for at least twenty-five
years.

(L. 1987 H.B. 60 § 1)

 

 

 

 


© 2000 Rhonda Stolte Darnell